10:1-13:14. Paul now adopts an almost complete change of tone. He defends his apostolic authority with vigour, and in a way that he really wished not to do. Because these false apostles attacked him on the grounds of his, to them, lack of credentials, he felt bound to respond in like manner. Yet he did not list the mighty works that accompanied his ministry, but rather a catalogue of his incredible (and surely unsurpassed) sufferings (11:22-33). We add to this his “thorn in the flesh” that was given “lest he should be exited above measure”. How instructive is that! He would soon visit them for the third time. His hope was that they were behaving well as the church of God, and that he would not be humbled among them because of some who may have sinned already. Yet he loved this church dearly. He was, after all, their father in the faith who would willingly spend and be spent for their wellbeing and progress in the faith.
11 сен 2024
